The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-01-14
AS OTHERS SEE US.
Continuation Of the Sketch Of the Capto-
limo City In "Harper's Weekly" Of Janu-
rEth


sea, at the head OF tide-water navigation
on the James, which river furnishes an
exhaus.less and unlimited water-pOwer,
and surrounded by rich agricultural
country, the capital city OF Virginia offers
such exceptional advantages to manufac-
turing enterprises as to give it most
prominent position among the leading in
dustrial centres of the United States. The
best of granite is quarried within its cor
porate limits, inexhaustible mineral treas
ures await the pick of the miner few
miles from its boundaries, and the State
line Of Virginia encloses vast tracts OF
virgin forest that stand ready to pay
tribute to Richmond mills.
Twenty years ago the city contained
less than forty thousand inhabitants and
only about three hundred manufactures,
many Of which had been called into ex-
istence by the war. It's business streets
had just been swept by devastating fire,
it was bankrupt, and its people were
poverty-stricken and stunned. Without
stopping to mourn their dead or bewail
their losses, they set to work with indom-
liable energy to retrieve their broken
fortunes, to build new city, and to fill
it with new industries. The Richmond
of 1886 contains a population OF over
eighty thousand souls; its taxable real
estate is valued at S33 100000, and its
personal property at $l3,000,000. Its FOG
factories employ 1880 operatives, in
bodies Of from ) to 400; and with an
invested capital Of $12,0OO,OOO, the an
nual product of these factories has COM
mercial value of S30,0O0,000.
Pm. MAYo's FACTORY.
A sketch Of this factory was given in
Yesterdays TIMES The writer continues
his description as follows: In going
through representative factory such as
that of the Mayos, the visitor is struck
with the extreme neatness and order per
vading every department, and the skilled
intelligence by which the operations OF
the six hundred hands, nearly all OF
whom are cOlOred, are directed. After
being taken from the hogsheads in which
it is received, the leaf tobacco is first
sorted into its several grades; then it is
stemmed, sweetened in a mixture OF
syrup and licorice, steam-dried, shredded,
moulded into shapes, cut into dimensions,
envelOped in leaf wrappers, weighed,
pressed, tagged, and packed for shipment.
All this work must be carried on in a
temperature of about ninety degrees, as a
single blast of colder air would unfit the
prepared material for use, and it is all
done with the utmost rapidity, precision,
and cleanliness.
An interesting feature Of those factor
les in which colored workers are en-
ployed is the singing, which on some
days is almost continuous in such Of the
as are quiet enough to ad-
nit of it, Old plantation melodies and
expressive negro hymns follow each other
in rapid succession, and the work goes on
all the faster for them. The music is
mOnotOnous recitatiye by a
single voice, followed by grand chorus
of q hundred or more voices, each per- |
feet in its part. There is an intense !
musical rivalry between the hands of the |
several factories, and the acquisition Of
good soloist by any one of them is hailed |
with joy.
GOLD PowHATAN."
The homestead of the Mayo family, !
which has been in their possession for |
nearly two hundred years, is one of the !
most historical places in Virginia 1t |
was the ancient home Of the powerful |
Indian chieftain Powhatan, and was the
scene Of CAPTAIN John Smiths deliver /
ance from death by Pocahontas. Here in |
a grove of tall cedars may be seen the
great stone beneath which Powhatan is |
buried, and a short distance from it is |
another stone, alleged to be the identical |
one upon which the head of the devoted |
white man was laid in preparation for
his execution.
THE TANNER AND DELANEY WORKS.
Not the least important among the in
1ustries Of Richmond are the works of
The Tanner and Delaney Engine Com
panv, which are the most extensive and
of their kind south Of Philadel-
phia The business was founded directly
after the close Of the war, and from the
humblest beginnings has grown until to-
lay its shops cover twelve acres, employ
eight hundred men, and turn out
three hundred steam engines a year,
besides locomotives, saw-mills, boil
ers, and quantities OF gas machinery.
The greatest novelty exhibited amid
he countless objects Of interest
hat crowd these twelve acres is the pole
road locomotive, which was invented in
NJ Montgomery, Alabama, and for the man
lfacture of which this company has the
sole agency. 1t is small locomotive
provided with immensely wide double
Hanged, chain-geared wheels, each of
which revolves independently of the 9th
,rs on its axis, and has lateral play Of
.hree inches, constructed for penetrating
he remotest depths of swamps and forests
IN. search of timber that would otherwise
never reach the saw-mill 1t is able to
run at the rate of five miles an hour, on
/ grade of two hundred feet TO the mile,
over a track made of logs laid end to end
and jointed together. In such a road no
,ross-ties nor iron are necessary, and il
AN be built at an expense Of about $50
Der mile. Although but recently intro
luced, these absurd-looking little loco
motives are already in use in a dozen
different localities through the South,
md are giving new impetus to the
imber business wherever they go
THE RICHMOND CEDAR woBKs.
T. fQpQ NJ. IV;il;o., III Dor.;.k g D;ob |